Manage your subscription

Looney Tuniverse: Ther is a crazy king of physics at work in the world of cartoons

By STEPHEN GOULD

Chasing Road Runner over a cliff, Wile E. Coyote hovers among the disappearing
clouds until he realises there is nothing to support him; only then does
he plummet to the ground. In the Looniverse, gravity affects only those
who notice it. During a chaotic garden chase, Sylvester the Cat is clobbered
with a spade and his face becomes shovel-shaped. In the cartoon world, shape
and form are easily altered. Despite double-checking for trains, Daffy Duck
is run over as he steps onto the tracks. Nobody in the world of Looney Toons
obeys the laws of physics – or so it might seem.

But new, looney toon analysis reveals that these, seemingly nonsensical,
phenomena can be described by logical laws similar to those in our world.
Nonsensical events are by no means limited to the Looniverse. Laws that
govern our own Universe often seem contrary to common sense. Quantum theory,
for example, provides countless cases of counter-intuitive phenomena, but
it applies in our Universe on the very small scale.

And the Looniverse seems to obey some quantum laws on a much larger
scale. Take quantum tunnelling. This allows tiny particles like electrons
to pass through otherwise impenetrable barriers. If quantum theory applied
to cartoon characters, or toons, highly energetic toons could not be confined
in closed spaces for any length of time. And indeed Bugs Bunny has no difficulty
tunnelling out of a chained and padlocked casserole dish placed in a sealed
oven.

Another quirky quantum phenomenon is wave-particle duality. This says
quantum objects can behave like particles, bouncing off each other, or like
waves, passing through and combining …